We’ve been on a hiring wave at the department. We brought on a ton of medics. However, in the past month, we hired several non-medics. Some are people who have never set foot in an ambulance in their life, and are hoping to enroll in EMT school soon. This means I’m not The Newest Girl anymore. Sure, I’m still A New Girl, because I’ve only been on for a year and a half now, but I’m not in The Newest Folks club anymore.
Hey, that’s kinda cool.
But I guess you can still smell the newbie on me. Even the newer newbies can smell it. Many of them approach me and ask questions, afraid of asking the more experienced EMT’s. I’m going to assume it was for many of the same reasons I was afraid to ask them when I first started: fear of looking stupid. Fear of annoying them. Fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Fear of disappointing them. Fear of having my head ripped off. Et cetera.
So I’m going to start a series here, for those of you reading who are new to EMS (meaning newer than me…haha), or considering joining EMS. I’ll give you advice, dispell misconceptions, and answer questions if you have any! This all might mean a little more if a more weathered EMT was giving the advice, but being a newbie myself, I still have a pretty good memory of my concerns and worries when I first started. Because it really was only yesterday. 
I’ll tell you the awesome things about this field, the things that surprised me, and the things that drive me absolutely crazy. I’m going to try to not portray this field as nothing but butterflies, sunshine, and unicorns pooping rainbows, because that’s not what it is. It’s like any field: there’s great days, and sucky days. For me, the great days make the sucky days worth it. It’s up to you to decide if you feel the same. If you don’t, that’s perfectly fine! There’s no shame in leaving, and saying, “this isn’t right for me.” Just getting that out there to start with.
So! Without further ado….
Newbie A Newbie! Part I!
Why I Got Into This Business
That’s a question I used to ask EMT’s during those awkward silences that plague every encounter when two strangers try to get to know each other. Seemed like a good icebreaker. But on some level, I asked that question to see if I was getting into this for the right reasons. It was something of a barometer to see whether I belonged or not. Like it or not, that’s actually a pretty good way (although not fool-proof!) of reading whether you’re in the right profession.
I came into EMS like I came into everything else important in my life: by accident. In the late spring of 2010, I was preparing to start my 10th year of competitive swimming, and my 3rd year as a coach’s assistant for the 10& under swimmers. Unfortunately, enrollment took a nose dive that year, and my coach told me he really didn’t need my help that season. My parents and I (…okay…mainly my parents…) wanted me to have a productive summer before I left for college. My days were going to be too open without the coaching position. So I applied to the local mom-n’-pop stores. Aaaand nobody was hiring. So I figured, “Ok, well, I’ll volunteer at the hospital.” I was curious about going into healthcare anyway, so it seemed like a good fit. But even the hospital wouldn’t take me! “Sorry,” They told me, “we only take EMT and paramedic students as volunteers or observers.” Hm….now there’s an idea. Maybe I’ll score a ride-along on the ambulance…
So I went down to the fire station, and inquired as to what I needed to do to become a ride-along. I had no intention of staying…I just needed something to fill the idle hours until college started. That first day, they showed me the trucks, handed me an application for an apprentice license (essentially a ride-along license), and talked about the ambulance. A few hours later, I left that station wanting nothing more than to work on that ambulance. I enrolled in a First Responder course (as I didn’t have enough time to take the full EMT-B course before school started), and the rest is history.
I stay with it because I like helping people. I look forward to meeting all sorts of people and doing what I can to give them comfort or assistance. I have hundreds of other reasons, but I suppose those are the core ones.
If you come to EMS because you’re interested in it, then great! If you’re in it because you have a desire to help people, that’s wonderful! That’s ultimately what it is. If you’re coming to EMS because you want to rescue skinny, blond-haired, blue-eyed, young models from car wrecks, and have them look up at you and say, “You’re my hero!” then I think you’re in the wrong business. If you’re coming to EMS solely for the adrenaline rush, and the heart-pounding, hair-raising, exhilerating saves, I think you might need to reassess your career goals. Can you picture yourself working as a team to move a 500 lb man to the stretcher? Or waking up at 3:14 a.m. to take an 82 year old with constipation to the hospital? Or missing yet another meal to transport a depressed teenager with superficial lacerations to her wrists? Can you imagine doing any of that with a smile, or while being kind, caring, or at least polite, to the patient? Because for every daring rescue you get, and for every cardiac arrest you respond to, you will get a hundred (or more) calls like the ones I just described. If all you want are the adrenaline rushes, the life-or-death moments, maybe you want to look into a position as a superhero. Because that’s the only job I can think of where matters of life and death make up the entirety of your work day.
Do you have to be excited about the slow, mundane, stable calls? No. But you do need to treat everyone with respect, compassion, and courtesy. There is rarely a situation that permits you to expose angry, bitter, or hostile feelings in front of your patient. And by rarely, I mean just about never. If you don’t think you can respond to a “boring” call without having the self-control to keep yourself from rolling your eyes and sighing loudly in front of your patient, then I don’t think EMS is for you.
You have to decide for yourself what your motives are in EMS. To be honest, if you are even contemplating that, you probably are in the business for the right reasons. If you care enough to worry whether or not you belong, you probably are selfless enough to care for other people. What it comes down to is this: EMS is about compassion. If you are capable of being compassionate, and are able to be there for a patient in their worst of times, than you will do fine. Even if you don’t see their complaint as an emergency, the patient certainly sees it that way, otherwise they wouldn’t have called 911. If you can understand that, and treat patients with respect and dignity, you are already partway there to being a great provider.
So, if you survived this rant to the end, why did you join EMS? Or, if you haven’t joined yet, why do you want to join EMS? Share your stories!
“If you’re coming to EMS because you want to rescue skinny, blond-haired, blue-eyed, young models from car wrecks, and have them look up at you and say, “You’re my hero!” then I think you’re in the wrong business.”
Damn it. There goes my successful way of getting dates.
MK, if you’ll allow me, I’ve got one sentence that can sum up your post, but it’s rather blunt. Your choice on whether or not I post it. ;/
Go for it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, my friend.
“Join EMS for the right reasons or don’t waste your time doing something you’ll hate.”
Yep. Pretty much. I just get long winded
But you state it so eloquently! :p
I also “fell” into EMS. I lost my husband almost 4 years ago while I was in the hospital and paramedics had to transport my boys to the ER for CO poisoning. My boys were treated great in what could have been a really traumatic experience. About a year and a half ago I decided I thought I wanted to become an RN but decided that I should join the local volunteer EMS service so that I can see if I can “hack” it. After I started the EMT class I realized that my therapist had told me several months before that I have a problem with always trying to “rescue” people whether it’s an employer, a boyfriend, a friend, etc. So, I thought “Hey, if I can get all of that rescue stuff out of my system through EMS than maybe I can stop doing that in my personal life.” Once I started going on runs I fell in love. I love being there to hold someone’s hand and talk to them, try to get them to relax on the way to the ER, and monitor them along the way. The adrenaline rush when the pager goes off and not knowing what I’m really going to walk into is pretty awesome too though. And, honestly, the nature of the call generally doesn’t matter to me, I still love it.
EMS, well it has been a long process, I started my work life as a Professional Engineer. Then somewhere along the line my inner Robby peaked out and said “you should be a Firefighter, so I joined the local POC Fire Department. Don’t stop there become and Fire Instructor and a First Responder and Platoon Captain. Then it happened, the “Accident” and literally it was, I was driving up the highway and came upon a minivan wreck, stayed there till the City crew came out and that was it. I signed up for my EMT/PCP (Primary Care Paramedic) the next week. That was in 2006 and I have worked casual rural EMS since I graduated in 2008 (30 weeks of weekend classes every second weekend for 1.5 years) I LOVE IT!!!
I fell into EMS in a similar way to you. I was bored “only” working my full time job the summer between my jr and sr year of university, so I decided to take the EMT class, since it sounded like fun. During my senior year I volunteered with the local EMS agency. After graduation I decided that I much preferred EMS to my degree field, so I moved and got a full time EMT job, and am now going through paramedic school.
I enjoyed reading this
Doing the rideouts as a high school student, never having set foot in an ambulanc before.. WAS GREAT! I learned a lot, worked with some really great people, enjoyed the patient care aspect, and met some amazing people.
In High school had done 1 semesters worth of co-op (rideouts) with the EMS, weekdays 8am -5pm (or later if on a call), after the first week of going out with the medics, I knew EMS was the career I wanted to get into.
Now..I am towards finishing my Paramedic program, and will be starting my placement with local EMS ths month, and am quite exceited about it. Will graduate the program in April. Write the provincial exam early summer
I am nervous to be a student in the field again ….”fear of looking stupid. Fear of annoying them. Fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. Fear of disappointing them. Fear of having my head ripped off”
But at the same time, am excited to be able to have the past experience from high school rideouts, and now the college training to back me up. Come a long way, but Know I still have a long way to go.
I too am currently in Medic school and recently started riding about two months ago. I was very nervous to start riding in fear that I would not know how to start an IV line. Nervous that I would mess up and cause many problems. However, one of my preceptor told me something and every time I think about going on a call or doing something while on ride time I remember it. She said, ” You have to allow yourself to be a student.” You are a student and this is your time to learn and understand how to do the job. So at all costs when you go in try and remember those words. Just a little friendly tip that helped me and continues to help me during my field ride time. One thing of advice from myself is while you are in the field don’t worry some much as getting things checked off as mush as trying to learn as much as you can each day. Good Luck and have fun on your field ride time.
At first I never really thought that I would enjoy EMS. Actually to be honest I never thought that I would be good in the job and that I would always find a way to mess things up. I have always longed to be a firefighter/paramedic but when I was in high school I started volunteering for my local fire department in the junior corps. After sometime in that I program I had wished that my town EMS would start a junior program of their own. Eventually they started the program but we really did not do much medical training in our meetings. I actually felt like I did not want to do EMS any more. Plus at the time I had a lot of influences around me saying that I shouldn’t do EMS and that I should do just fire. I was going to college for Fire Science and decided that I wanted to concentrate on the fire service certs and my education. Well I finally signed up for an EMT. I got my cert and started to try and find a job doing EMS. At first I was nervous to work EMS because I was afraid that I would be horrible at the job. I actually fell in love with the job and for once actually ENJOYED going to work everyday. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go to Medic school.
Great article! I look forward to reading the next one and hopefully many more. I am not a Paramedic yet, but I hope to become one next year. After years working in military and civil aviation as a crewman and pilot I have decided to make this massive career change at 30 years of age. It’s quite hard to get into in Australia as most Ambulance services only take graduates of university clinical science degrees; in fact only New South Wales (Sydney) fills about half it’s positions with non-graduates, then trains them over four years.
The field appeals to me because I want to go home at the end of the day feeling that I have made some kind of meaningful contribution to peoples lives and society in general. I want to help people. I also find the field technically interesting, and the more I learn the more I want to learn. My wife suggested the profession to me after watching paramedics searching for survivors in the aftermath of the Christchurch (New Zealand) earthquakes last year, and it was like a lightbulb switched on in my head! I had done Search and Rescue work before, and enjoyed it, but had never thought of this career. Anyway, applications open in March so here’s hoping I make the cut. Thankyou and keep up the good work!
I liked the flashing lights. Then, as I grew older, I wanted to know more about the vehicles that had the flashing lights on them. Then I wanted to know more about the insides of the vehicles with the flashing lights. Then I wanted to drive the vehicles with the flashing lights. As I grew older I wanted to know what the people inside the vehicles with the flashing lights do. Then I applied to work as a person in the vehicles with the flashing lights.
Now I get to see the flashing lights every day during vehicle checks.
I love my job. The flashing lights are only a part of it, but the part that started it off at a very young age.
Guess you could say I “fell” into it. My parents decided I needed a volunteer activity for college applications and I shot back that I would join the fire department (I think partially to get back at them for forcing me to not be so lazy.) As luck would have it, the department where I lived at the time had an ambulance that went out much more often than the BGTs (Big Green Trucks), so I started riding it. Got hooked (thanks to meeting a guy who is fun to ride with), took the EMT class at night senior year of high school, picked up two part time jobs that i worked every summer and joined the department near where i went to college. Even went through the ridiculous process of reciprocity (that is a “please shoot me” process, and I am going through it again now, clearly I am insane.) Seven years in being a FF and five as an EMT.